4 comments:

He did have a couple of oops, and I've commented there. But the conclusion holds -- this year's maximum global sea ice extent (he said area) is the lowest in the satellite era.

Perhaps you've read places like wuwt, where they add the northern hemisphere maximum to the southern hemisphere maximum and make claims about global sea ice increasing. It's a dubious claim even as it stands, but the thing is (regarding Appel's note), those two maxima are not at the same time.

No psychic powers are required, just a knowledge of the seasonal cycle. Same as saying the Arctic max was (whatever it was in March-April) or the Antarctic minimum is (whatever it was in February). Cryosphere today has plots of the seasonal cycle. Link in right hand column of this page.

Welcome

I'll be trying what seems to be an unusual approach in blogs -- writing to be inclusive of students in middle school and jr. high*, as well as teachers and parents (whether for their own information or to help their children). To that end, comments will have to pass a stricter standard than I'd apply for an all-comers site. It shouldn't be onerous, just keep to the topic and use clean language.

I expect it to be fun for all, however, as you really can get quite far in understanding the world, even climate, by understanding this sort of fundamental. If I get too much less fundamental, let me know where I went astray.

* Ok, I concede that not many middle school students will get everything. Even a fair number of adults will find some parts hard to follow. Still, some middle school kids will have fun. And almost everyone will follow a number of posts just fine.

Please see the comment policy for details. And the link policy for details about that. The latter is more open than you might expect.

About Me

In my day job I work on the oceanography, meteorology, climatology, glaciology end of my science interests, but I'm interested in everything, science or not. So I've also been on stage in a production of Comedy of Errors, run an ultramarathon, and been to Epidaurus, Greece, to see a production of Euripides' Iphigenia among the Taurians
Prior to starting the current job, I was a post-doc in oceanography in the UCAR ocean modelling program, and earned my doctorate from the Department of the Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago (1989). My undergraduate degree involved Applied Math, Engineering, Astrophysics, and Glaciology.
Of course I don't speak for my employer, whoever that may be.